The world can be cruel
by MccullersStratford
Summary: Paige is in love with Emily. Emily is in love with Alison. But how far will Emily push Paige if it meant she could be with Ali?
1. Chapter 1

**I guess you'd call it a Paily fic, but not a very nice one. Enjoy**

"You know that girl you swim with, pigskin?" Alison asked Emily. They were sat on Emily's bed waiting for the other three girls. They were all planning on getting drunk and bitching about people they don't like.

"You mean Paige, yeah, what about her?" Emily replied, smiling at Ali. She should've at least tried to sound curious, but every time she looked at Alison she couldn't think of anything other than Alison. Alison enjoyed nothing more than taking advantage of Emily's not so secret love for her and Emily didn't seem to mind though she was aware Ali was taking advantage of her, Emily thought any attention was better than no attention.

"You know she's in love with you right." Emily had already forgotten that Ali had even mentioned Paige; she had the attention span of a child when it came to Ali, she just couldn't concentrate on anything other than her.

"What? No, she isn't, is she even gay?" Emily was finally beginning to pay attention to the conversation.

"Yeah, she is. She just has these crazy parents who don't like gays. But seriously, she's practically obsessed with you. It's kinda creepy actually." As Alison finished that sentence Hanna, Aria and Spencer walked in with bottles of vodka and Pizza boxes.

"Hey guys, we haven't missed anything have we?" Hanna asked sitting in-between Alison and Emily and passing her a bottle of vodka. The other girls followed, sitting on the bed in front of Emily and Ali.

"Not really, I was just telling Emily how pigskin is in love with her." Alison passed glasses around and poured vodka for the rest of the girls.

"Oh my God, is she gay? I mean her hair's a big give away but her dad would kill her." Hanna sounded genuinely surprised, almost refusing to believe it.

"Well, if neither of you believe me, I can prove it." Alison grinned at Hanna and Emily.

"Is that such a good idea?" Aria interfered; she was slightly concerned about Ali's motives. Allison wasn't a fan of doing things light heartedly; she knew that when she said this she meant humiliating Paige.

"Yeah, let's do it." Spencer was usually the sensible one but since her encounter with Paige at field hockey, she would happily help humiliate Paige.

"Look Em, I have Paige's number. Here's what we do… You call her from your cell; I mean she's obsessed with you so she probably has your number anyway. We put her on speaker and I'll tell you what to say. All you have to do is say what I tell you, okay?" Alison had that haunting look on her face, the one that worried the rest of the girls. When Ali had that look on her face they knew someone was going to get hurt.

Aria and Hanna weren't sure about what Ali was doing, they knew it would end in tears but they never had the courage to stand up to her. No matter how awful she was, the girls always stood by her side. Emily however was more than willing to do anything Ali told her to. Though, out of all the girls she had the purest intentions, she didn't know Paige that well but if it meant getting closer to Ali, she'd do it.

"Okay…" Ali walked over to Emily's desk and grabbed a notepad and a pen. "I'll write what I want you to say, and the rest of you can't make a sound. Trust me, it'll be fun." She sat back on the bed beside Emily, surrounded by the rest of the girls. She pulled out the cell and clicked on Paige's number, "here, dial it." Emily pulled out her cell and dialed Paige's number, not sure about what was about to happen or how she'd feel about it.

She put the phone on speaker as it was ringing and rested it on the bed sheets in the middle of the group of girls circled on the bed.

_"Hello? Sorry, who's this?"_ Alison smirked at the sound of Paige's voice, she knew now that this whole thing was going to go smoothly, for her at least. She nodded at Emily before writing on the paper.

"Erm…it's Emily. Emily Fields."

_"Oh, Emily, hey. How did you get my number?"_ Alison showed Emily the notepad.

"Erm, never mind that. I just wanted to be blunt with you... are you gay?"

_"What? No! Of course I'm not, why would you think that?"_ Alison quickly wrote a reply for Emily.

"Sorry, I just thought maybe you'd like to hang out sometime." Emily wasn't sure where this was going, and neither did any of the other girls for that matter.

_"What, really?"_ Paige's tone of voice had changed entirely, she sounded more relaxed and less worried now. Alison smiled to herself as she held up the next reply for Emily.

"Yeah, I've seen you swim and you seem interesting. But I mean if you're not gay…"

_"No… well… are you alone?"_ Alison nodded at Emily, the smile now gone from her face. She couldn't have Emily mess up, not yet anyway.

"Yeah Paige, I'm alone, you can trust me." Those words hurt Emily, she knew they weren't true and hated the idea that she could so easily humiliate Paige just by faking her trust.

_"Okay, sorry Emily, yeah... I'm... I'm gay, I just can't let people find out. And I'd love to go out with you sometime… anytime."_ Paige sighed down the phone, the relief escaping through the speaker.

Alison and Spencer both looked at each other grinning with delight at what they just heard. Hanna and Aria however were becoming more concerned. Alison hurried to write the next few lines for Emily.

"Well, we should go out sometime then."

Paige became almost speechless at what was just happening, though Emily was somewhat reluctant to read the rest of what Ali had written, she was scared about how far this could go.

Alison winked at Emily, she knew she could get Emily to do whatever she wanted, and all it took were the right actions. Emily smiled at Ali before reading the rest down the phone.

"Could I ask you to do one thing for me first?" Alison had already started writing a script, almost predicting what Paige was going to say, no one could stop her now.

_"Sure Emily, anything."_

"You know what phone sex is right?" The four girls, including Emily and Spencer were now beginning to feel uncomfortable. Paige didn't deserve this. Allison laughed silently to herself, waiting for Paige's response. She had already written Emily's next reply.

_"Erm… Yeah, I know what phone sex is."_ They couldn't tell if Paige was nervous or excited but either way, Ali knew she was going to go through with it. She showed Emily the next reply.

"Well, if you're alone right now…" Emily didn't have a chance to finish her sentence. Paige knew exactly what she was implying,

_"yeah, I'm alone. So you wanna do this now?"_ Emily's guilt had finally kicked in; she shook her head at Alison and held her face in her hands. Alison wasn't done yet, she needed to finish this. It was as if she had something to prove. She put her hands on Emily's shoulders and whispered in Emily's ear covering the phone's mic.

"Em, do this for me." Alison leaned back, removing her hand from the cell phone.

_"Emily, are you there?"_ Paige's voice haunted the silent room. As much as Emily didn't want to humiliate Paige like this, she was doing this for Alison, and to her that was the greatest reward.

"Yeah, I'm still here." Alison smiled holding up the next reply for Emily. "Do you ever think about us? What I would do to you, or what you would do to me? Do you ever just let your hands wander when you can't sleep?" Emily still sounded convincing despite how uncomfortable she felt.

_"All the time. You're all I ever think about."_ Emily slammed her eyes closed at Paige's reply. She hated herself for what she was doing but she couldn't stop herself.

"Tell me exactly what you think about."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N - I was reluctant to continue thi****s ****story** because I quickly came to the conclusion that I hated it… I've decided to just write this in my spare time so updates probably won't be regular. Apologies to those of you who actually like the story...

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Emily walked into school, the guilt of her weekend almost crippling her. Since that night all she wanted to do was go back; she wished she could just stand up for herself and do what was right. She knew Alison was cruel, and she knew Alison could make her do terrible things but Emily still couldn't find the courage to stand up to her.

Emily walked up to her locker, trying to keep her head down. She wanted to avoid any confrontation and didn't want any reminders of her weekend.

As she made her way to her locker she saw Alison stood by it, waiting. Emily panicked, she was aware that Alison had already seen her so she couldn't just turn around and avoid her, but she really didn't want to see her. Not until this Paige thing had cleared.

"Hey Em. Is she here?" Alison didn't attempt to lower her voice. It was as if she wanted to be heard If there's anything Alison ever wanted it was attention.

"Who, Paige?" Just saying her name out loud felt wrong. Emily felt that it was too cowardly to even let the name pass her lips. She felt a sudden numbing guilt stab her through the chest.

"Yeah, Pigskin. I wonder if she'll ever show her face again." Alison silently laughed to herself before walking away and disappearing around the corner.

After Alison mentioned it, Emily was curious about Paige. Was she at school? Would she bump into her today? Has anything happened to her?

The school swim team had a swim practice first and second period so Emily didn't have to wait long to see if Paige had shown up today.

She put her books in her locker and left before she bumped into anyone else. She made it to the girl's locker room almost an hour before anyone else. She sat on the bench in front of her locker until the rest of the swim team filled the room, getting ready for practice.

Even after everyone was ready to swim, Emily made no attempt to move. She continued to sit on the bench, her eyes searching for Paige through the crowd of girls.

Emily sat examining the room for considerably longer than she intended. She knew that if Paige didn't show up at school that what she did hit Paige just as hard as she expected.

Paige was strong; one of the strongest people Emily had ever met. Not many people can survive Alison's torture but Paige had suffered it for years and still stood strong. It was unlike Paige to back down.

"Emily! Could you get ready, we're ready to practice." The coach broke Emily from her over thinking.

Emily stood up and walked out of the locker room in response. Without looking back, despite the couch calling her name, Emily walked to her locker to grab her books and headed out of the school.

She didn't even attempt to explain to anyone why she was leaving or make up any kind of excuse. She continued out the main exit and walked up to her car. Only now did she realise what she had just done. All this for Paige? This was something Emily would do for Alison, but for Paige?

Emily drove out of school and made her way to Paige's house.

Emily wouldn't have known where Paige lived if it wasn't for Ali. Before this war between the two of them, Jason often went out drinking with a Nick Mccullers, and it didn't take Alison long to figure out who Nick was.

Alison made sure to point the house out to the girls every time they walked past.

On the drive there, Emily began thinking. She had realised how little she had thought about this. What was she going to do when she got there? It's not like Paige is going to be happy to see her. But the least Emily could do is try.

Upon reaching Paige's house, Emily felt a shift of emotion. Though she often despised Alison for some of her actions, that loathing was always balanced by the love she had for her.

However, since that night, Emily had started to hate Alison. She was beginning to realise that this love for Alison wasn't worth it; the misleading and using; the hurt and betrayal. Alison was evil, and Emily had finally realised how shallow this 'love' really was.

Emily parked outside Paige's house. She had no idea what she was going to do next; she hadn't yet thought that far ahead. Emily wasn't sure if Paige's parents would be home and the last thing she needed right now was having to make up a quick excuse to see Paige.

After sitting in the car for over an hour, she took a deep breath and left the car. As she slammed the door she checked her phone: 5 missed calls and 8 New messages. Emily didn't have to look at them to know they were from the girls, most of which from Alison.

Locking her phone again, Emily walked up to the front door of Paige's house. This path up to the door seemed miles long; it felt like hours had passed by the time Emily had reached the door.

She took a deep breath and rang the doorbell without giving it a second thought. She knew that thinking about it would just end in her walking away and driving back to school, making no attempt to contact Paige.

Waiting for a response, Emily realised how horrible she had been to Paige. She hadn't noticed until now because she only cared about Alison, she couldn't notice the harm she was causing to everyone else, she was too blind to see anyone but Ali.

Emily was startled out of her overthinking by the faint sound of footsteps down the stairs. Despite Paige's efforts to stay quiet, Emily was aware that Paige was walking toward the door.

There was silence for several minutes before Emily pressed the doorbell again.

"Paige? I know you're there." Emily whispered through the door. She wasn't entirely sure if Paige was still there but she had to try something; anything.

"What do you want?" Paige was clearly reluctant to reply but her curiosity got the better of her.

"I just wanted to talk to you. I'm not who you think I am." Emily really was concerned about Paige and didn't want her to hurt like this.

Emily sat on the doorstep, leaning against the front door.

"Please, just hear me out." Emily continued.

Emily heard Paige slide down the door. It sound to Emily as if Paige was sat directly opposite her; only the door parting them.

"Why should I? You're just as bad as her." Paige was attempting to hold back her tears. Re-living that night broke her heart. She had already gone over it constantly in her head, and hearing Emily's voice didn't help at all.

"I'm not as bad as Ali, not even close. What I did was wrong, I should have stopped it but I'm a coward. I'm sorry" Emily could hear Paige's gentle sobbing through the door. The thought that she could do this to someone, make someone hurt this much broke her heart. What had she turned into?

"I thought you were different." Paige's voice was breaking and every word that left her lips pierced Emily. Emily's guilt was slowly swallowing her.

Those words had a harsh effect on Emily, she felt numb and trapped. She knew she could never forgive herself for this, and if she couldn't forgive herself she couldn't expect Paige to forgive her.

"Can I come in?" Emily was startled by her own words. She didn't expect Paige to even open the door to her let alone let her in the house. Emily almost wanted to apologise and take it back.

Before Emily could consider apologising she heard Paige unhook the chain from the door.

Emily was surprised that Paige would allow her in the house, despite any feelings Paige had towards her. What Emily did was evil and she knew it, she didn't deserve any of this.

Emily stood up as she heard Paige turn the key to unlock the door. Before she opened the door Paige paused; "are you alone?" Paige had just become aware that she hadn't considered the possibility that this could be another trick.

"Of course." Emily replied reassuringly. "I told you, I'm not who you think I am."

Paige opened the door.


End file.
